


if you could hold

by gaytimetraveller



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: 3am on a sunday night? strifehart time i guess, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 02:44:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18730132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaytimetraveller/pseuds/gaytimetraveller
Summary: Late nights were only more and more common as the town came along, and Cloud, tired as he was, could only look forward to getting home.





	if you could hold

**Author's Note:**

> sometimes you just gotta. finish a strifehart fic very late on a sunday night and know you gotta post it
> 
> okay but anyone who's been put through my writing in the long term knows i love pointless late-night fluff like this. shoutout to my best friend for instilling a love of this kind of content in me

It was already well past midnight by the time Cloud had gotten home and was on his way to bed. Late nights had been common recently, and even if the work around town felt like it was never done, at least it was nice to walk home under the stars.

Leon hadn’t been getting home much earlier either, and they both knew that some nights others stayed later. Tifa had pulled a few all-nighters that month already, between all the work on her shoulders and the extra she took on, and whether Aerith slept at all was now at the center of a betting pool.

That night, Leon had been waiting up, and as bad as Cloud felt about knowing he always waited up for him, he knew that Leon wouldn’t go to bed himself whether he told him to or not. He’d do the same, always had. Already had twice that week.

At the sound of the shower turning off Leon was already rolling over in bed, waiting with open arms as Cloud pulled on a pair of pajama pants and practically fell into bed. 

“How was today?” he murmured. He brushed Cloud’s still-wet hair off of his forehead with a tenderness most wouldn’t expect him to have (one most wouldn’t see, and maybe Cloud was a little smug about that.)

Cloud sighed and burrowed further into the sheets. “...Long.”

“Sick of cutting through heartless and paperwork yet?”

“Mmhm,” he yawned, “And fixing claymores, running errands, killing more heartless, making sure Yuffie doesn’t break more roofing than she fixes, killing a few more heartless...all that.”

Leon didn’t respond with much more than a hum, instead occupied with lightly brushing through the back of Cloud’s hair. He kept his other arm wrapped around his waist, all too content with working through the other’s hair and tracing nonsensical patterns into his back. Cloud sighed again, shifting to rest his head further into Leon’s collarbone.

“It’s exhausting,”

“Yeah?” and he hummed again, almost inquisitively, or maybe somewhere closer to concerned. Cloud huffed and smiled a little, there was something so  _ warm _ about knowing what he meant just from that much. It was enough.

“Just, doing this. Being here, helping out, fighting for the town and everything.” He paused. “It feels right, and I want this, I want to do it, but…”

“It’s hard?”

“Yeah. It’s hard.” He smiled a little wider despite himself when the other rubbed at the back of his neck, scratching through the short hair there. “It’s all a heavy burden to bear, after all.”

Leon sighed something close to a laugh. “The world?”

“The world, the light, a heart,”

And for a few moments, he was quiet. Contemplating. Cloud didn’t have to continue for him to understand further; that maybe he wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t meant for this, didn’t have the heart for it or would be better off without one.

“Would you like me to help?”

“Mm?” Cloud pulled back a little, and Leon moved his hand around from the back of his neck to his jaw, tilting his head back just enough to be able to look him in the eyes.

Once he was looking, he froze. Leon’s gaze only felt more intense in the half-light, like his eyes almost shined. Not glowed, not like Cloud knew his would in the dark, it was more like the glint off of metal; eye-catching and hard to look away from, maybe even blinding.

He didn’t manage to say anything else, voice caught in his throat, and caught again in the other’s look. Then Leon leaned in to press a kiss to his forehead, more gently and tenderly than than anything, and something in him broke.

So Cloud asked, lowly, quietly, but no less intense,

“What would you do if you could hold my heart in your hands?”

Leon paused, and for all he could’ve said, he didn’t have to say a word. There was something just so…so soft, so sentimental, so loving in his face, in the way he cupped his face and rubbed a thumb along Cloud’s jaw, and he could’ve cried just for that.

“I’d let you.” And at that, at the quiet reverence, at the surety with which he could simply say something like that, Leon couldn’t help smiling and bringing his forehead to Cloud’s.

He sighed, kissing him ever-so-lightly with all the adoration he could muster. “I know.” It was almost rough, even those two words almost shaking, because Leon wasn’t the type to show much emotion at all, and yet Cloud could overwhelm him and sweep him away with so little.

“You’ve already got it,” he breathed, and then, barely audible, “Thank you.”

And the next morning, when Cloud was woken up and nearly dragged out of bed with the temptation of breakfast and a few charming smiles from Leon, the weight on his shoulders seemed lighter. When he smiled at Leon as they went out the door, he winked, and for all the warmth in his chest he couldn’t help but laugh.


End file.
